ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – Asked on Thursday afternoon who was the tallest player in this week’s England and Ireland Walker Cup squad, Ireland’s Alex Maguire didn’t hesitate.
“The guy over there,” Maguire said, pointing to the seats down to his right, where Scotland’s Calum Scott sat quietly behind another microphone.
Scott, a rising junior at Texas Tech, is unassuming, baby-faced and lanky, but boy, can he move the golf ball. In fact, Scott’s hard, penetrating ball flight isn’t a bad contrast to American bomber Gordon Sargent, who has impressed even the likes of Rory McIlroy on big stages this year.
“I think I have very long arms,” Scott explained. “I’m tall. I’m lanky. I wouldn’t say it’s muscle or anything. I played a lot of sports growing up and I played tennis, squash. I know how to move things fast.”
How fast? Scott cruises around 123 mph clubhead speed and lower 180s ball speed; not quite Sargent figures, but Scott has a little more in mind.
“I haven’t really tried to go full,” he added. “But yeah, I won’t say 200, but 190 something, yeah.”
With the Old Course in St. Andrews is expected to be accompanied by relatively benign conditions this weekend for the 49ers.th Walker Cup, Scott, Sargent and the rest of these young mashers won’t be shy about sending drivers early and often. Scott in particular knows these iconic links well as he finished third at St. Andrews Links Trophy back in June before going on to play matches at both the British Amateur (Round of 64) and US Amateur (Round of 32), finishes that show he has recaptured the form he had last autumn when he had three top-10s for the Red Raiders and at one point was ranked top 5 in Golfstat along with teammate Ludvig Aberg.
“I played the British Am with him for the first time a few weeks ago and he hit 5-irons as far as I hit my 2-irons,” said Alex Maguire, Scott’s Walker Cup teammate and winner of the St. Andrews Links Trophy this summer. “I couldn’t believe it, I thought he hit a 3-iron. Then I look over in his bag and you’ll see the 3 and the 4 and the 6 and he hits the 5 iron. Yeah, Calum can get it pretty far out there.”
Which begs the question: Would Scott enjoy a matchup with world No. 1 Sargent this weekend?
“I’ve played with Gordon a few times in college, so obviously I know how tall he is,” Scott said. “I think everybody in the college scene in America knows how tall he is.
Look, he’s a great player. He’s No. 1 in the world, so it would be great to play him in singles. I would love that match. I would love any matchup, but it would be cool to play him at the Home of Golf.
“But yeah, I guess we’ll see. It’ll be good.”